River City Melee: Battle Royal Special, originally released in Japan as Downtown Rantō Kōshinkyoku: Kachinuki Kakutō SP (ダウンタウン乱闘行進曲 かちぬきかくとうSP, "Downtown Brawl March: Win Through Fighting SP") is essentially a modification of River City Super Sports Challenge: All Stars Special, altered to center fully around fighting, with multiple new arenas and new teams added, in addition to tweaked move sets and a power meter that can charge special moves up. It also has a new story mode for each team, although many events are the same across them. So far, it is only available for PlayStation 4 and Steam.

Contents

Story

Gameplay

During Single Play, the player will face off against three different teams in three matches. In the fourth match, the Tiger Brothers will challenge the player's team. The player will then fight a single opponent from Wu Wonfu, the boss team, before facing off against the final boss and the remaining Wu Wonfu members.

Exceptions to this include Outlaw, Team Misuzu, Historical Drama and Magical Story teams. The Outlaw team will fight Hanazono High School in place of the Tiger Brothers, then Misuzu on her own before facing Wu Wonfu. Misuzu's team will face the Dodgeball Club instead of the Tiger Brothers.

Changes from ~All Stars Special~

The game now includes a help screen showing the in-game controls on a game pad and keyboard. It can be accessed at the title screen and the pause menu. Players can also configure the in-game buttons in the pause menu and in the player and team select screen. It is possible to toggle an option to allow the player to jump by pressing both the punch and kick buttons simultaneously like in previous games.

The player can now see the stats of each character on a team with the press of a button. This is done in the team select screen, in the pause menu and the character select screen before each fight. Players can also see each of the character's techniques and how to perform them.

The game has a Rage Meter, which fills up when the player takes damage. Once full, the techniques of each character are upgraded. Kunio's Mach Kick will change to Mach Kick II, which is the same much but he ends it with an upward kick that sends opponents flying, for example. During Rage Mode, the character's overall stats will also be enhanced.

The game now has three throws, which are performed by grabbing an opponent from the ground and while they are being carried, pressing a direction and the kick button. These are the Giant Swing, the Power Bomb and the Upper Throw, though some characters have unique throws that replace these moves.

Characters have new and different move sets from ~All Stars Special~. Moves from non-fighting events have been removed in favor of new moves that fit better for combat.

Stages

The game includes the original Battle Royal stage from the previous game, including the two variations (bigger area with no way to throw opponents out and a much smaller stage). The game also features a new variation of the Battle Royal stage, though players cannot toss their opponents out of bounds the ground will gradually be destroyed. The open space will act as a stage hazard. The game has three completely new stages as well.

Tobioka CC

Cheerleader

Lion Association

Nekketsu Dodgeball Club

Dodgeball Kunio

Dodgeball Hiroshi

Koji

Ichiro

Shinichi

Mituhiro

Historical Drama

Kunimasa

Tsurumatsu

Rikigoro

Bunzo

Jukichi

Asajiro

Nekketsu Magical Story

Kounie

Ricky

Goder

Go Dai

Sanju

Ijo

The boss team featured in the game's story mode was initially unplayable. The game was updated in January 25, 2019 allowing players to use the bosses in Free Play. They have been split into two teams: Wu Wonfu, which includes the new characters, and Mastermind Team, which has Yuuji Munakata as captain and Matsudo in his school uniform as vice-captain, and removes Tsubaki and Sumi.

The members featured on the team depend on the team being used in Single Play. Before facing the team proper, the player will fight a single member of the team (predetermined depending on the team being used).

Wu Wonfu (Single Play)

Munakata / Matsudo / Kunio

Tsubaki

Miyakoda

Shimokita

Miyagasaki

Naka

Sumi

Wu Wonfu (Free Play)

Tsubaki

Miyakoda

Shimokita

Miyagasaki

Naka

Sumi

Mastermind Team

Munakata

Matsudo

Miyakoda

Shimokita

Miyagasaki

Naka

Music

The game has the same tracks from the previous game, but also includes some new ones, some of which are arrangements from previous games. Some of these arrangements are meant to complement the new stages in the game. Some of the music goes unused in the PC version of the game, just like in ~All Stars Special~: